LAHORE: Speakers at a public forum on ‘Implementation of National Action Plan (NAP)’ have asked the government to take into account the Pakistan Institute of Legislative Development and Transparency’s (PILDAT’s) assessment of the NAP to identify areas where more work is needed.
They also urged the government to increase work hours of courts for effective handling of terrorism cases.
Present at the forum which was held here on Wednesday, a spokesperson for the Punjab government, while saying that the government was committed to speedy and effective implementation of the NAP, highlighted the nature of modern-day terrorism.
The PILDAT has recently issued a monitoring report on ‘Implementation of NAP to Counter Terrorism in Punjab from January 2015 to December 2016.
Earlier, PILDAT Joint Director Aasiya Riaz briefed the participants on 20 points of the NAP and their status of implementation. Sharing the overall assessment, she said, “The status of implementation of NAP from January 2015 – December 2016 shows that only three points receive good or very good (green) progress rating; three other points received satisfactory (green-amber) progress, while progress on four points is outright unsatisfactory (red), whereas 10 points indicate somewhat unsatisfactory (amber-red) progress in the PILDAT’s assessment.”
Those participated in the discussion include Adviser to Punjab CM Malik Muhammad Ahmed Khan and the PILDAT’s Steering Committee members, including former Sindh governor Lt Gen (r) Moinuddin Haider and former interior secretary Tasneem Noorani. Major Gen (r) Dr Noel Israel Khokhar of the Forman Christian College and Mujeebur Rehman Shami were key speakers.
Malik Ahmed Khan appreciated the PILDAT for monitoring implementation of NAP from the citizens’ perspective. He reiterated that the Punjab government was committed not only to effective implementation of NAP but also reporting on its progress which led to the government sharing data with the PILDAT on the status of implementation in the first two years.
He also shed light on the Punjab Safe Cities Authority (PSCA) and highlighted its role in increasing the government’s power of surveillance. He expressed his confidence in the fight against terrorism, especially after the launch of Operation Radd-ul-Fasaad, and said that intelligence sharing at the provincial level had increased since the start of the operation. However, Khan was of the view that revamping of the criminal justice system would take at least ten years.
Dr Noel Israel Khokhar thanked the Punjab government for sharing data with the PILDAT and candidly participating in discussions on implementation progress of NAP. He said that the PILDAT’s assessment of NAP would help federal and provincial governments assess their performance.
In his address, Lt Gen (r) Moinuddin Haider highlighted the gains achieved through military operations particularly in establishing the writ of the government in terror-hit areas. He was of the view that criminal justice system reform was essential and the re-housing of internally displaced persons was an important aspect of the NAP. However, he expressed disappointment over the status of implementation of FATA reforms, and said that work on the reforms was stopped at the eleventh hour due to reservations of certain political leaders.
Aasiya Riaz said that the NAP had gained the rare consensus of otherwise bitterly opposed political forces, besides the civil-military agreement. “Despite this assigned centrality to its importance, the federal and the provincial governments have not regularly made available a progress status on implementation of the NAP,” she said.
“By undertaking the monitoring of the progress on implementation of the NAP and its public dissemination, the PILDAT initiative aims to serve the purpose of advocacy for effective implementation,” she added.
She stated that owing to lack of complete data received from all entities, the PILDAT has released an interim monitor that contains the working data for national and provincial progress. “Since the Punjab government has shared the most comprehensive data, a monitor focusing on implementation status on NAP in Punjab has been released by PILDAT using the traffic light assessment (green, green-amber, amber-red, red),” she said.
